![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/261\/2011\/10\/beans1222748285-300x255.jpg\")
<\/a>The diet super food?\u00a0 Beans.<\/p>\nYes, the lowly pinto bean — and just about all the other varieties as well — are a perfect blend of fiber and protein.\u00a0 The combination gives them a low glycemic index number and helps regulate your blood sugar. You get\u00a0 long-lasting energy and hunger control as they slowly digest and insulin is released in a controlled, steady stream rather than in a fat-storing dump.<\/p>\n
Troubled with high cholesterol?\u00a0 The fiber in beans can help lower it. A cup of cooked pinto beans provides 58.8% of\u00a0 your daily fiber needs.<\/p>\n
And beans are a heart-healthy food.\u00a0 They have significant levels of folate, which help lower levels of\u00a0 homocysteine.\u00a0 Elevated homocysteine levels are a risk factor for heart attack.\u00a0 One cup of beans provides 73.5% of the recommended daily intake for folate.<\/p>\n
The good supply of magnesium in beans also makes it a heart-healthy food.\u00a0 Magnesium is a natural calcium channel blocker. When your body has enough magnesium, veins and arteries relax, which improves the supply of blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout your body.\u00a0 And, yes, you can buy magnesium, but most of it will be wasted unless you buy a natural supplement in a food matrix.\u00a0 Much of the supplements — and nearly all the inexpensive ones — are synthetic, made from coal tar and petroleum byproducts.\u00a0 Better to get it from real food so your body can actually absorb and use it.<\/p>\n
Beans are also a good source of potassium, which is also good for your heart and helps prevent high blood pressure naturally.<\/p>\n
Those things would be good enough — but there\u2019s more!\u00a0 Beans are a good source of iron, which is important, among other things, for maintaining energy levels.\u00a0 The copper and manganese in beans have an anti-oxidant effect and the thiamin in beans will help \u00a0support your brain functions.<\/p>\n
Beans do take some time to cook, but canned beans don\u2019t lose their nutrients like canned vegetables do.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to open a can of beans, and they can be the base of any number of recipes.<\/p>\n
Eating healthy doesn\u2019t have to be expensive — and you don\u2019t have to starve yourself to get rid of belly fat. \u00a0Why buy exotic and pricey foods? Healthy, filling foods like simple beans are there on the shelves — waiting for you to take advantage of them.<\/p>\n
Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/em><\/p>\nSusan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new diet super-food that helps prevent heart attacks, lowers blood pressure, and improves brain function!\u00a0 Are you ready to shell out big bucks to get it?\u00a0 Keep your money in your wallet.\u00a0 It does, indeed, do wonderful things for your heart as it helps you in your journey to a healthier weight, but it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[237,239,240,241,238],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eating-plan","tag-beans","tag-iron","tag-magnesium","tag-manganese","tag-pinto-beans"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/files\/2011\/10\/beans1222748285.jpg\")
<\/a>The diet super food?\u00a0 Beans.<\/p>\n